Senseless vandalism.

Apologies in advance, I want to have a whinge. This:
…used to be about a mile of rather entertaining, entirely legal singletrack. Nothing incredible, but a decent stretch of fun off-road riding nonetheless, and not a million miles from my house. It was well drained, stable, and in pretty good nick, and it doesn’t go anywhere that would need a smooth hardpack trail to it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone on it who wasn’t on a bike, having a blast. It’s certainly not one of the local rambler motorways, and I don’t recall seeing any horseshoe prints on there either.

Now it’s been “improved” it’s smoother than some of the roads I drive to work on, and about as interesting. And they wonder why we persist in riding cheeky stuff. Bah.

Just keep riding it, it’ll soon develop some interesting lines again. At least they’ve topped it, track near me had the top layer of nice rocky stuff removed and then was just left – it’s now a boggy piece of sh*t.

They’ve done a section between Woodingdean and Kingston to make access easier to the phone masts. It’s been a good few years and it’s only just settled down now, horrible to ride on when it’s all moving around.

Is it your land? Is it your responsbility? Further that is it a footpath?

Either way, the countryside isn’t just for mountain bikers, you know.

Yes, you’re quite right, how dare I grumble about the loss of something I liked on a forum of people who might be expected to sympathise. Disgustingly selfish of me.

I’ll just keep my head down and thank my lucky stars that the local gentry don’t shoot me on sight when I cross their vast tracts of land on the occasional slivers of legally protected rights of way open to me, eh?

I’ll just keep my head down and thank my lucky stars that the local gentry don’t shoot me on sight when I cross their vast tracts of land on the occasional slivers of legally protected rights of way open to me, eh?

Bloody annoying, countries got no money but they manage to ruin a good trail! When I was in the lakes there was a lot of trail ‘repairs’ just like that. They ruined the Garbun Pass, there was some really good technical sections troutbeck side and they just covered it in small loose stone.

I’m not sure that it is the council in this case. The lads on the diggers and trucks were fixing up a bit of farm track at the top too, so it might be the farmer gussying things up for horsey types or something like that. Farmers seem to be the only people with any money around here at the moment.

On the plus side, though, they appear to be putting a bit of drainage in on another bridleway a bit further up the valley, which will probably make a section of horrible swamp passable if they do it right. Swings and roundabouts, although I’d rather have the old track back. Here’s hoping 2011 has some highly localised torrential rainstorms…

This is going to down well 🙂 🙂
Judging by what looks like stone walls on both sides they may have just been reinstating a trackway/road?
Also, i doubt if the chippings would be for horseriders benefit as it plays f*ck with their hooves.
Does seem to be a complete waste of money though!

This was a great narrow weaving singletrack. Used by walkers and horseriders too. Not really muddy, just right actually.

A couple of years ago it was flattened, widened and covered in aggregate / sand which was compacted in. It is hardly a route for wheelchair access – and the drainage channels across the path every 100m or so would scupper that anyway.

So why was it done? And at what cost at these times of cuts?

What has happened in the two years is that water running down the path – it’s on a gentle hill – has created grooves and ruts along the path which are a real PITA for a cyclist. The sand and aggregate is being washed away to the drainage channels and off to the side.

A pointless exercise and the spoiling of a great path for walkers, cyclists and riders into a boring sandy strip of blandness.

And why not? Do you think the countryside is reserved for your personal use?

I don’t think anyone here thinks the countryside is for their personal use. This may open a can of worms, and it may not be the case in the OP, but I do wonder sometimes why it’s suddenly become so important to make large parts of the countryside accessable to all.

I can undertand accessability in places like country parks, but is it really necessary to make isolated places accessable to all by building these tracks, which invariably revert to their natural state after a couple of years of little maintenance anyway?

Are we trying to be too inclusive with countryside access? Should local authorities save the money and simply accept that a degree of physical ability is required to access some parts of the countryside? Or is there some legislation related to access that forces them to do this?

Of course not. But I do think that this particular path improvement is a pointless waste of money. If it is the council who’ve done it, that’s public money, and it could be much better spent. There are many, many far better candidates for path improvement in the area, in places that get far more traffic from users who would benefit from smooth surfaces. The local ramblers have been complaining about the state of our paths for years, but they’re annoyed about impassable swamps and other blockages like that. There was nothing like that on this track.

If it’s not the council’s doing, but the landowner, then fine, it’s their cash. Either way, though, it doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to be a bit miffed that they’ve spoiled one of my favourite local trails.

Can you not get the local 4×4 crowd to drive up and down it a few times?

I suspect that the local MX boys will be up and down it in due course, they should help to make it more interesting.

AndrewBF, is that the bit near Blackmoorfoot Res? They completely ruined that a few years back when it was upgraded to bridleway.

Yes, it is the path up to Blackmoorfoot Res 😮 I wasn’t expecting anyone to be able to recognise a picture of such an anonymous path.

Then I looked at your original photo in detail and there it is! Across the way on the hillside.

Blimey – Kirklees council must be on a roll to burn all the budget before anyone comes and takes the cash away from them. I can’t believe they’ve flattened and filled the road in your photo. It must have cost a small fortune and it certainly won’t be for ‘off road’ wheelchair access as it is way too steep at the far end.

I don’t think that road is private, but if it is I expect it is so that the farmers can get access to the fields. That ‘roadway’ was becoming quite worn and rutted, way too extreme even for a real 4×4 at the bottom end. And that is what made it one of the great rides around these parts. I used it regularly to test brake and suspension upgrades. Now I’m going to have to find somewhere else.

Do you live in Meltham?

Here’s a picture of the path before the work was done. Looking up hill from the other direction. Cows as a rolling roadblock are simply a hazard of riding these parts 🙂

Nope, Marsden, but I grew up in Meltham and lived not 100 yards from that path to Blackmoorfoot when I was a teenager, hence my being able to recognise it. It was the start or finish to pretty much every ride I ever did…

Or how about Netherthong? Just down the road. And we’re not so far from places called Penistone and Fartown. It’s those Vikings, they had a filthy sense of humour when they were naming places they’d just invaded.

Not to mention Thongsbridge, just beyond Netherthong, after Upperthong. There was a whole thong industry around these parts in ancient times.

mintimperial if you want to meet up for a ride get in touch. I’ve not done much in the Marsden area except the CVMBC and the pack horse trail over to the A640. Would be good to find some new routes over there.

I’ll be going up to Harden Hill Rd tomorrow to have a look at how smooth it has become 🙁

@TandemJeremy – You can see the quality of the ‘road’ in my picture with the cow – and that is the ‘smooth’ parts ahead of the really worn out rutted (read, small streams) part of the road. In the years I’ve lived here I’ve never seen any evidence of car or tractor movements on that road. Just seems very odd that in these austere times someone sees fit to patch the whole thing up.